rewards of virtue, and in the ostensible punishment of wickedness in the changes of men's fortunes, (instances of which are frequently occurring,) that the dispensations of Providence are most conspicuously seen and displayed in this life. Thus when industry, prudence, and virtue advance men from a low and humble condition to splendid stations, to places of trust and honour; and when prodigality, luxury, and impiety bring misery, poverty, and contempt upon rich and noble families; such revolutions as these are great examples of the wisdom and justice of God and therefore the inequality of men's fortunes is so far from being an objection against the goodness or providence of God, that there could be little visible exercise of either that goodness or providence without it.

Further, we have every reason to think it was never the intention of God that the heart of man should be too much set on this world, on either its riches, pleasures, or honours; and therefore the vicissitudes in these, and the many unfortunate occurrences we often see in this life, have a tendency to wean man from an improper attachment to these fugitive things; likewise to be a trial

of his faith and confidence in God; and the occasional sufferings of the good, and prosperity of bad men, is an evidence to him, and a very strong one, of a future state of retribution; and the consideration of this will or ought to be a just incentive to fit and qualify himself for that state, to which, beyond all doubt or question, it is the proper object of human wisdom and ambition to aspire. At the same time, the goodness of God foreseeing that a great deal of poverty and misery would occur in the world in consequence of this unavoidable inequality, he has provided an ample remedy for it, (if men would be obedient to his injunctions,) by sending man to his fellow-creature for relief; and accordingly he has stamped in a very strong manner on the breasts of most men a propensity. and disposition to influence them, as free agents, to relieve this misery. Of the three great duties man is ordered to perform in this life," to love mercy" is one; God has likewise made it so honourable to man to relieve the distresses of his fellow-creature, that there never yet was any nation so barbarous or so civilized, that did not love, honour, and esteem the man who distinguished himself by the godlike attributes of charity

and benevolence; and, on the contrary, nothing can be a severer reproach to any man, in the judgment of all worthy people, than to be stigmatized with being a hard-hearted unfeeling character.

The reader of this Treatise is probably as well or better acquainted with the Scriptures than the writer of it; and therefore it is unnecessary to make quotations of those numerous texts which must occur to his recollection, in which philanthropy, benevolence, and charity, are recommended and commanded to be observed by man to man : such an extract would make this a much larger volume than it is intended to be, for in almost every page of Scripture these duties are enjoined. God himself, in the strongest manner, enjoins them by Moses, and every one of his Prophets. Our Saviour makes the salvation of man chiefly to depend on their observance; and so do his Apostles. Therefore the strongest motives that can possibly actuate the conduct of a free agent are inculcated on the human heart, to relieve, as much as possible, that unavoidable misery and distress which an inequality of fortune must more or less occasion in the world: and more than this God could not

do, without eternal miracles, or constantly overruling the free agency of man.

Now after this fair and candid consideration of the conduct of God in this instance to the human species, will any man censure his goodness, because all men are not equally rich, or have an equal portion of the good things of this life? It is impossible any person possessing reason or candour can with any justice do so. Without the least imputation, therefore, on the goodness of God, every man may freely admit that an inequality of rank, station, and fortune, should exist in human life; and that with respect to these things there is, and ought to be, one event to all free agents, whether good or bad; and more especially if it is allowed, and which it should be, that, if the virtuous and pious will be equally industrious and œconomical, they have the same, in reality a preferable, chance for the acquisition of these things over the vicious and impious. But does it follow, because there is one event to the good and bad with respect to riches and honours, that there is one event decreed to both in all other respects? God forbid that such a conclusion should prevail in the heart of man; for it is impossible, I think, for any man

who entertains this opinion to have the least faith in either the goodness, providence, or justice of God,

It has been before observed, that one lot in life embraces, perhaps, as much genuine happiness as another; and therefore, since, in the universal judgment of mankind, man's happiness is not essentially determined by his station in life, or by riches or honours, the essence of his happiness must be elsewhere sought for: and as the God we worship is a rewarder of such as diligently seek him, in this world as well as the next, (godliness having the promise of the life that now is, as well as that which is to come,) God accordingly gives to those who love, honour, and obey him, a reward in this life worthy of himself; for he has decreed as specific a difference to exist in the intellectual feeling of the mind of a good and a bad man, as he has constituted to be displayed in the natural world, when illumined by the all-cheering rays of the sun riding in his meridian splendor, and in that sad darkness which surrounds the gloomy throne of night. He has everlastingly decreed, that the feelings of a good man shall be habitually cheerful and happy, though that happiness may occasionally be